The present invention is drawn to equipment for the production of continuously cast billets, in particular extrusion billets of aluminium or magnesium alloys.
Billets of aluminium or magnesium alloys which hereinafter are simply referred to as "billets", which are produced by continuous casting must, after casting, be subjected to a heat treatment (e.g. heating up, holding at temperature and cooling) in order to heterogenize and/or homogenize. Therefore the production process includes, in addition to the continuous casting itself, the subsequent heat treatment, possibly the cutting to a predetermined length and preparation for dispatch.
In known processes it is necessary to have extensive handling in terms of transporting and storing between the various individual stages of the process i.e., between continuous casting, subdivision of the billets into lengths which are suitable for heat treatment, cutting to the desired final length with the saw, stacking and packing. The known installations for billet production require therefore a large amount of space. In addition, the known processes also require a large labor force for transporting the billets from one production stage to another and for storing the billets between stages.